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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (13 November) . . Page.. 4177 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

Mr Speaker, there has been some important discussion about the opportunity for bodies outside the Assembly and in the community generally to have access to documentation that the EMA will be collating and working on. Along these lines, Labor supports very strongly the provision of draft environment protection policies to organisations such as the Conservation Council of the South East Region and Canberra. This is a provision similar to that in the Land Act. It was a recommendation by the Conservation Council and we were very pleased to be able to support that recommendation. We believe it is appropriate. I understand that discussion has also taken place - I am fairly sure this is in the amendments - about a similar provision in respect of the Canberra Business Council, again an appropriate mechanism, for outside organisations to see copies of these draft environment protection policies. I believe that is quite appropriate and it will allow a wider flow of information and discussion about the direction that the EMA is taking. Again, I think it is a step that should be welcomed.

Mr Speaker, Labor also wanted to make sure that this legislation is workable and practical. One issue that the community more generally has followed in this complex debate about environment protection legislation is the washing of cars. This very basic issue demonstrates the importance of the environmental duty that all people will have under this Act. The provision required people to wash their car on a grassed area instead of on their driveway or somewhere else where water with soap suds in it could run down the stormwater drain. A very legitimate concern was raised to the committee during its deliberations. The concern was, "What if you live in a townhouse? What if you live in a unit? What if you live somewhere where there are no areas where you can wash your car down so that the water will not flow into the stormwater system?".

This was an appropriate concern to raise because increasingly in Canberra there is debate about increased density and the development of townhouses, flats and units. In those developments that opportunity does not exist. I think it was a very appropriate recommendation to say that people who did not have the opportunity to wash their cars in such a manner on a grassed area could still be taken to be complying with their environmental duty if they took all appropriate steps to minimise the amount of water containing soap suds and other chemicals washing down into stormwater drains. This is a very practical demonstration of how all parties in this Assembly have worked to make sure that the environment protection legislation is good not only at the conceptual level but also at the practical level.

Mr Speaker, the need for integrated environment protection legislation has been a pressing need in our community for some time and it is good to see this legislation at the stage where it is to be passed. Our community is, I think, not just increasingly concerned about environmental issues. It is very concerned about environmental issues. I think there is widespread understanding of the importance of every individual taking whatever steps they believe they can to minimise their own detrimental effect on the environment as well as the effect of our society and community overall. The comprehensive regime which this Bill puts in place, which monitors, regulates and guides good environmental practice, whether it be by individuals, businesses or other organisations, and which ultimately sometimes sanctions activities which the community has decided are not in the best interests of the environment, is an important step. It is a step that the Labor Party welcomes. Labor will support the passage of this Bill through the Assembly this evening.

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